2007 Hyundai Coupe S111 Auto 2.0 16v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Faults:

General Comments:

These cars look a hell of a lot more than they actually are, which I've found out the hard way.

First of all, 9 out of 10 for looks, the facelifted Coupe, which mine was, looks great, and has a pretty nice interior as well.

The dash plastics leave a bit to be desired, but bearing in mind how much they went for new, that's fair enough. I also loved the blue backlighting for the instruments at night, the supportive, heated seats and the general comfort levels.

However, this car, with the 2.0 litre and an auto box, is gutless man. You have to rev the nuts off it to get to go even half well, it doesn't sound that nice, and once I nearly got out accelerated by a bloke in a 1.6 Astra Sport Hatch.

I think a lot of the problem is with the old fashioned, 4-speed auto box, which is just plain low tech in this day and age.

Handling was OK, steering feel was good, although the ride was quite firm. I'm amazed Hyundai didn't fit ESP as standard to all Coupes, as I thought mine had a far too twitchy back end in the wet; I actually did a full 180 once on a greasy roundabout. I was pressing on, but it just snapped with no warning at all, and it was all I could do to stop from ending up actually crashing into the roundabout itself!

The only ever time I ever lost it in a car like that was in a MK2 Toyota MR2 in the wet about 14 yrs ago. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has found this with their Coupe in the wet?

So apart from this near death experience, I quite enjoyed driving the car!

18th Nov 2010, 13:37

Sorry, I disagree.

I'm not sure what you mean by "touring" suspension, I take that to mean non-sporting, comfortable suspension, but the suspension set up on the Coupe is quite firm.

I wouldn't describe the suspension as low tech or poor quality either, it's independent all round with, coil sprung Macpherson struts at the front and coil sprung dual link at the back, pretty standard stuff really, not anywhere near as low tech as some American trucks for example that still have live rear axles, harking back to the horse and cart!

My issue was with the way my car, for whatever reason, just went on me with no warning, basically rather than progressive understeer, which you expect in a front wheel drive car, it hardly understeered at all, and just went into snap oversteer, which you might expect on a rear wheel drive car, particularly a mid-engined rear drive car. In contrast I own a 1986 Porsche 924S as well, rear wheel drive, and that always understeers way before the back end steps out of line. I was also following my wife in her Skoda Octavia vRS, she went round the roundabout at the same speed and got round fine.

I've owned tons of cars, worked in the car trade for 10 yrs, and never had a car do that to me on the limit, except a Toyota MR2, and that was totally my fault, because I was showing off.

Like my review said, ESP would've stopped it I should think, but the car is just poorly set up.

Exactly what happened was -- I was going round a roundabout just before entering my town in very wet conditions. I hadn't had the car long, and was unaware of this handling characteristic. The roundabout is used by a lot of lorries that enter a distribution warehouse, and therefore gets greasy in the wet. I gave it some gas, and the car kicked down on the autobox, that basically kicked the back end way out, and made me spin 180 degrees, with me correcting it with full opposite lock to stop the car ending up on top of the roundabout.

Like I said, I'd be interested to know if anyone else has noticed this tail happiness of their Coupe in the wet?